One says unless there is a security or mental health issue, the process should be “lickety-split.”

Even Conrad Black–perhaps the most noted Canadian to renounce Canadian citizenship–confirms the process does not take long. Black thinks Cruz may regret the decision to do so (as I suspect Mr. Black did–although he was able to come back with no problem after serving some of his prison sentence in the US).

One of the lawyers points out:

“He’s a Harvard-educated lawyer, so what’s the problem? It’s elementary.”

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6 thoughts on “Why Hasn’t Ted Cruz Renounced Canadian Citizenship?”

Globe and Mail is asking Ted Cruz is he really wants to give up Canadian citizenship. We have everything he detests–gay marriage, gun control and socialized medicine. They didn’t mention that we also have no FATCA for Canadians living outside of Canada (although IRS would definitely claim Ted as a “US person” if he moved here).

I like that the Wire showed how simple it is to renounce Canadian citizenship. It gave me a pang – can you imagine how happy we’d all be (in fact, how many of us would be reading this) if we could go to a website, download a form, fill it out, include a fee and send it off, knowing that’s all that was required to renounce US citizenship? To me, it really highlights one of the main differences between the two countries. Canada has no need, nor any desire, to call people traitors, or to hold them hostage for wanting to have the citizenship (only) of the country in which they spend their lives. Not that there’s much reason to have to renounce CDN citizenship – unless the country of residence doesn’t allow a dual citizenship.

I speculate that he may not been registered as an American citizen when he was born and might be working thorough the paperwork to verify his US citizenship and then will renounce Canadian citizenship.

If Cruz can’t become the first Canadian-born, half-Cuban, Tea Party president of the United States, then Canada could always be an option. Not that Cruz really understands the way things work up north. He said he learned about his Canadian citizenship from the Dallas Morning News, even though their citizenship law works exactly the same as America’s (if you’re born there, you’re a citizen).

Let’s hope Ted doesn’t plan to return to his birth country like Conrad Black did. If he does, we could educate Ted about FATCA, FBAR, etc.

The other issue The Wire makes is whether Ted is having a problem proving he is a US citizen. Now, that’s a problem we would love to have. We’re trying to prove we aren’t US persons or citizens. Ted may have to prove he is to ditch Canadian citizenship!